Our 3 tier vegetable planter.

[Gareth]

Sorry another question, i bought two curry plants at a fete. The man said I could dry stems from them and use to season food but I have also read that it cant be eaten?? what do you do with yours?
Hope you dont mind all these questions
sorry its a bit off topic

This is a message communed to you from the other side: Lois & I are now currently dead and pushing up the daisies as we both ate freshly picked Curry plant leaves and stems mixed in with our salad greens last night.

[issy]

Just to be sure i think i will let OH try it first.

[Gareth]

Looking forward to seeing the next one. Hubby has promised to make a couple of these for me. I have loads of ideas on what i want to plant. I will have to convince him to do it soon or it won't be this year as the weather is changing already.

I have been slightly held back with completing the making of the 3rd style of 3 tiered planter: The bathroom door literally fell off its hinges last weekend and we had to replace both the door and the frame which took some considerable time to do last weekend due to the age of the house and bodges by previous owners.

Now is the ideal time to be building planters ready for the growing season next year.

As soon as it is possible over the next few weeks I will be making 3 more of the "stepped from the rear" vegetable planters to bring our tiered growing space up 9sq/mtrs (the original veg planter is 2.25 sq/mtrs), only this time I will utilise tiers with heights of 8 inch increments rather than than the 12 inches increments used on the first one: it is 1/3 less materials used to make them, and 1/3 less drainage stones, soil and compost to fill them.

I want all 3 of the new veg planters ready before the end of October, as we intend to cover each of them with a home-made mini poly tunnel and "Hot bed" through the winter....... It was mentioned during this year's RHS Chelsea flower show that it is possible to grow and crop sufficient vegetables on 9sq/mtrs to sustain 2 adults, and we really want to give that a go.

[Gareth]

I was just out in the garden doing some project work, and thought that you may like to see how our stepped 3 tiered Herb planter was getting on: it was initially planted up about 2½ months ago and for the last 2 months we have been harvesting fresh green herbs from it for either the table or for adding to recipes during cooking on an almost daily basis.

[issy]

Looking really good Gareth I have had to make do with two large pots of herbs in the conservatory as my OH still hasn't got around to making these for me. But in his defence he has finished the large Walk-in-Run and built a second coop for our new ex-batts, so can't complain really I think we still have a couple weeks before the frosts start so might happen this year yet (fingers crossed).

[Gareth]

Thank you for the compliment Issy

The stepped out from the rear corner, 3 tiered flower planter is still very much a work-in-progress project; and has been for several weeks now. The kitchen refurbishment, general house re-decorating, and work, along with other social committments has really slowed this project down: it should only be about 10-12 hours work from beginning to end, but I've only managed to snatch the odd ½ hour at time on it every now and again.

Today I only managed 30 minutes work on it, and I would really like to have it finished this weekend, and ready for planting up next week. Here are a couple of photos taken earlier today of the progress so far:

[Gareth]

Stepped 3 Tier Planter (Reclaimed Pallet Timber Project).

My Pallet Stripping Bar has had another outing, and this time I have made a "Stepped from the rear corner" 3 tiered planter, so That Lois and I can plant various flowers in it. Hopefully this coming weekend Lois will be planting bulbs that will make a good showing next springtime, and then the planter will be planted with many colourful annuals.

Due to me being extremely busy with work, and refurbishment and redecorating the house, this planter has been work-in-progress for almost 3 months, with me being able to literally snatch only the odd on half hour or so to work on it.

This planter is based around the 120 cm long stringers timbers on a standard 2 way euro pallet. I have also learnt the hard way the higher the tiers, the more materials are need to make the planter, and the more soil is needed to fill it. Our original vegetable planter has steps at 30 cm high increments, and our herb planter has steps at 15 cm high increments, I have 3 more vegetable planters to make and install in our garden, and I have now settled on 20 cm high increments for the tiers for this flower planter, and the vegetable planters that I will be making next.

The dimensions are as follows:

Base Tier: 120 cm long X 120 cm wide X 20 cm high

Middle Tier: 80 cm long X 80 cm wide X 40 cm high.

Top Tier: 40 cm long X 40 cm wide X 60 cm high.

I utilised screwed & glued halving joints to make the framework:



Before you start cutting the timbers to length and chiseling out sections to make the joints, you must ensure that all of the nails have been removed from both the stringer timbers and the planks, otherwise you may seriously damage the tools:



A few of the framework pieces ready to use:



Cleaning up the excess dried foaming polyurethane marine wood glue with a very sharp chisel:



Not forgetting to do the same to the other side before it is ready to be coated with bitumen paint to help preserve the timber:



A quick look at how big this planter is going to be, and where we are putting it:



Cladding the frame work with reclaimed pallet planks:







A lick of bitumen paint on all surfaces that will be contact with the soil and compost in the Planter:





After giving all the rest of the timber surfaces a couple of coats of Forest green Timber Preservative, it was at last time to begin assembling the planter in its final position. A couple of scrap timber braces were installed to help keep everything square, and an area of the lawn was marked out ready to remove the turf:

Lifting the sods with my Azada; I love this tool for ground work, it is so quick, easy and efficient to use:



The framework positioned, levelled out and the top tier screwed into place:



The middle tier positioned and screwed into place:



The base tier positioned, screwed into place, and being inspected by Oz:



A few more views of this planter:







The stepped 3 tier flower planter in the background, and our stepped 3 tiered herb planter in the foreground:



I still have to fill the flower planter with soil, compost and manure, and hope to have this task completed before this weekend, so that Lois can begin planting the bulbs ready for next spring.